In a work of this kind we will only refer to gout and to uric acid, etc., of which we hear so much both from professional persons and laymen, in relation to the diet in such conditions. At the same time, in order to do this intelligently, we must look somewhat into the etiology and patholdgy of the condition. It makes no difference to the quack what his nostrum is taken for, so he gets money return, and so the uric acid trick has been very faithfully worked, so much so, that from newspaper and magazine advertisements the masses have become very familiar with the term, and we hear the so-called uric acid condition discussed on all sides. Among medical men we see a somewhat similar though probably an honest state of affairs. So many ailments are referred to as gouty, the result of uric acid in the system. We have the gouty throat, the gouty eye, the gouty heart, and so on. Even the average physician is satisfied in his own mind to refer the cause to uric acid and prescribe a fashionable remedy of a fashionable doctor. So far as remedies are concerned, not one of the remedies in popular use can be proved to be on any scientific ground an effectual antidote to the so-called poison in the system, the uric acid. Probably of this series of remedies colchicum has the best foundation for its use from its now well-known action on the liver and its secretions. Most of our knowledge is empirical. In acute gout, if we give colchicum we think the trouble sooner abates, so when we give the salicylates, so when we give some vaunted formula we are not surely familiar with. Semi-starvation, plenty of water and opiates, and other remedies for the pain appear also to be effectual. Reason as we may, our treatment is empirical rather than scientific. I admit, we are making some progress, but we are yet attempting to fly with one wing broken.

Is uric acid the cause of gout? Well, it may be and it may not be the cause. So far as we now know it possibly may be, or what we are accustomed to call uric acid may be. What is uric acid?

Here is the important question. Before answering this question we must take up a new, or comparatively new, series of bodies which physiological chemistry is now studying and attempting to elucidate. I refer to the Purin Bodies